Council endorses Climate Action Plan but no declaration of climate emergency

At a council meeting on July 26, all councillors present voted to support the adoption of the plan.

Eurobodalla Shire Council has had a climate mitigation and adaptation plan since 2007. This is the fourth iteration of the plan.

It is a 10 year plan, aiming to help the council mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts.

Greens councillor Alison Worthington said the plan was "the most ambitious yet, and [brought] actions of the community into the plan".

It identifies 40 actions the council can take to reduce their carbon footprint and improve the resilience of their service delivery to the community. It also identifies 18 actions for how the council can support individuals and businesses across the Eurobodalla to improve their climate resilience and reduce their emissions.

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Labor councillor David Grace said the CAP was an "excellent piece of work".

"This is not a document that should sit neatly on the shelf, it needs to be dog-eared... because we are constantly looking at it," he said.

The council received 47 submissions while the draft was put on public exhibition: 44 were supportive and three opposed the CAP and were skeptical of the science.

Two submissions were received from NSW Forestry and Department of Primary Industries correcting and opposing some of the information and the action in the draft CAP related to forestry.

In endorsing the plan, the council recognised the ability to implement actions in the CAP was dependent on:

The CAP is available online.

Councillor Tanya Dannock was an absent apology for the entire meeting.

All seven presenters at the public forum before the council meeting on July 26 spoke about the CAP, with five calling for the council to declare a 'climate emergency'. One was opposed to declaring an emergency, challenging the scientific backing.

Council received five submissions urging the CAP to declare a climate emergency while the draft was on public exhibition earlier this year.

Councillors repeatedly asked the speakers if deferring the decision to declare a climate emergency would increase the significance of the announcement.

Presenter Sandy Wilder, said declaring a climate emergency meant educating the community about what a climate emergency was, and why it was important.

"We have to not just declare it, but educate people," she said.

While Ms Wilder said there was an urgent need to act, she said it was the councillor's decision as to when declaring the emergency would have the biggest desired impact.

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Cr Grace said while he considered the climate situation an emergency, to declare the climate emergency as an amendment to the CAP risked not getting the policy correct.

"It is important we get it right the first time," he said.

During the council meeting, the motion to declare a climate emergency was not tabled.

Cr Worthington said in future weeks it would be tabled in the Eurobodalla Council chambers for the second time, after former Greens councillor Pat McGinlay brought forward a motion to declare a climate emergency in August, 2019.

Cr McGinlay's notion was voted down by councillors.

The next council meeting is August 9 at 11am. Currently, there are no concrete plans for the council to discuss declaring a climate emergency.